Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Limits Some Childhood Vaccines, Urges Shared Decision-Making
The New York Times: Kennedy Scales Back the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Children
Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17. Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has updated the agency’s immunization schedule to reflect the changes, effective immediately, officials said at a news briefing. (Mandavilli, 1/5)
The Hill: Sen. Bill Cassidy Rips RFK Jr. Vaccine Schedule Change, Says It's 'Based On No Scientific Input'
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who cast a critical vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, on Monday blasted the reduction of the childhood immunization schedule by Kennedy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC announced Monday it would be reducing the number of recommended vaccines for children from 17 to 11, putting the U.S. in line with that of other developed countries like Denmark, a nation which anti-vaccine skeptics and critics often cite as a model to be emulated. (Choi, 1/5)
In related news about flu, measles, and covid —
CNN: Flu Reaches Highest Levels In The US In 25 Years
Flu continues to bring misery across the US, with all but four states showing high or very high levels of activity as a new virus strain called subclade K continues to spread. By another measure – visits to the doctor for fever plus a cough or sore throat, which are common flu symptoms – the US is at its highest level of respiratory illness since at least the 1997-98 flu season, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Goodman, 1/5)
Stat: Flu Season 2026: Welcome To The Winter Of Subclade K
Australia’s 2025 flu season lasted weeks longer than it normally does. Hong Kong’s hit so early that the rollout of seasonal flu shots hadn’t yet started. New York has reported record-breaking flu hospitalizations for the past two weeks. Welcome to the winter of subclade K. (Branswell, 1/6)
MedPage Today: Parking Lot Triage: What A Pediatrician Is Seeing Amid Measles Outbreak
Three days after Christmas, Deborah Greenhouse, MD, of Columbia, South Carolina, voiced her frustration on social media about the measles outbreak in her state: "Things that I can't believe I am doing as a pediatrician on a Sunday morning in December 2025: Triaging patients with fever and rash in my office parking lot to avoid bringing a child inside who might expose everyone in our waiting rooms to measles. And yet here we are ..." (Dotinga, 1/5)
CIDRAP: South Carolina Measles Total Climbs To 188
South Carolina health officials today said the state now has 188 cases of measles, 185 of which are associated with a growing outbreak in the Upstate region linked to elementary schools with low vaccination rates. As of late last week, 223 people were in quarantine for measles exposure. (Soucheray, 1/5)
CIDRAP: Study Outlines Recurring Symptom Clusters That Define Long COVID
Long COVID is best understood as a collection of overlapping symptoms rather than a single post-viral condition, suggests a new systemic review published in eClinicalMedicine. The review identified the main symptom patterns associated with long COVID, including neurologic, respiratory, olfactory and/or gustatory, cardiopulmonary, and fatigue. (Bergeson, 1/5)
CIDRAP: In Utero COVID Exposure Linked To Brain Changes, Developmental Delays, Anxiety, And Depression
In utero SARS-CoV-2 exposure may predispose children to altered brain volumes, impaired cognition, and internalizing emotional problems such as anxiety and depression, researchers from Children’s National Hospital and George Washington University write in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. The team enrolled 39 mother-baby pairs in Washington, DC, who had been exposed to COVID-19 during pregnancy from 2020 to 2022 and compared them with 103 normative pairs from before the pandemic (2016 to 2019). None of the infected women had been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. (Van Beusekom, 1/5)
